Today I read ch. 17 in THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JESUS - about war and peace and reasons for and against. This was a good chapter - probably mostly because he said everything I agree with (isn't that what usually determines good and bad for us?). There is much I could quote from it, so I will try to limit:
p. 149-150
"the kingdom that Jesus portrays exercises its power not in redemptive violence but in courageous, self-giving love, and its goal is not victory on its own terms but rather peace on God's terms... Jesus speaks on many occasions about his radically differnt approach to power -- an approach that deconstructs dominance patterns in religion, family, education, and government (Mt. 23:1-12; Lk 22:24-27; Jn 13:1-15) and sees greatness in service instead of domination."
On 151 he quotes Tertullian:
"Confessing 'Jesus is Lord' means taking Jesus seriously as Lord, as the authority for the believer: Caeser commands us to kill our enemies, and Jesus commands us to love them. Caesar makes use of torture and chains, Jesus calls us to forgiveness and holiness."
He also talks about crucifixion as a means by which Rome "scared" people into allegiance. On 153 BM says:
"It's stunning in this light taht the church chose the cross as one of its primary symbols. What could choosing such an instrument of torture, domination, fear, intimidation, and death possibly mean? For the early church, it apparently meant that the kingdom of God would triumph not by inflicting violence but by enduring it -- not by making others suffer but by willingly enduring suffering for the sake of justice -- not be coercing or humiliating others but by enduring their humiliation with gentle dignity... Jesus, they felt, took the empire's instrument of torture and transformed it into God's symbol of the repudiation of violence -- encoding a creed that love, not violence, is the most powerful force in the universe."
And a couple of GREAT quotes by Martin Luther King, Jr.:
Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder.
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can't establish truth.
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate.
Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.
And:
"Peace is not merely a goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal... We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say 'we must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace... We must see that peace represents sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war."
AMEN!
McLaren also says on 156:
"Every warring nation emphasizes the evil of its enemy; few resist the temptation to minimize their own evil. Fewere still realize that the same evils are at work in both "them" and "us," and therefore pose a common, universal enemy - and it is this universal enemy that the kingdom of God fights with its weapons 'not of tis world.'"
And maybe the final dagger - p. 157:
"...it is certain that there has never been a so-called just war that did not create unjust consequences for thousands if not millions."
I will say, BM did a nice job of not coming down on soldiers. He actually even defended the need to have Christians involved in such affairs, quoting John the Baptist's response to the soldiers: "Don't abuse power. And listen to the one whose way I was sent to prepare. He will take away the sin of the world."
I'm not sure if pacifism is the real answer - as far as a pacifism that just sits and does nothing. I believe the answer is, and what BM purports also, is a revolution of peace. We must ACTIVELY bring peace... into relationships, our jobs, our schools, our day-to-day affairs, into the world. So, to that...
Peace. Revolution. It's not too late.
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